


I Had To Leave You

by regdog



Series: Lost Light Fest 2019 [3]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-16 07:48:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21032756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/regdog/pseuds/regdog
Summary: Prowl and Barricade are brothers. This is why Barricade left Prowl. Barricade's POV





	I Had To Leave You

With the unlocking of his chestplates, Barricade was sure his millennia of self-loathing for his failure would now be at an end. And who better to end his misery than the mech he failed, causing his never-ending torment. “Do it. End the misery that is my life, brother mine.” 

Prowl reared back, dropping the energon dagger. Closing his chestplates, Barricade scrabbled to his pedes intending to follow his brother to his death. Instead he was herded back by the retreating Decepticons. 

His drive back to the Decepticon base was silent. Thanks to his combative, acerbic temperament even the toughest Decepticons kept clear of the small mech. More than one had crossed the former Enforcer and wound up being pieced back together by the Constructicons or Knockout. Still there was always one or two who had to open their mouthplates. Today it was Brawl’s turn to run his vocalizer.

“Frag mech, you almost got slagged by the Autobot’s drone. Talk about an embarrassing way to offline. Offlined by a drone desk warmer,” Brawl scoffed, slapping Barricade between his doorwing fairings.

Barricade didn’t think, he reacted. No one called Prowl a drone. No one who continued to function that is. In the blink of an optic his close combat weapons whirled to life, slamming Brawl in the faceplates. The heavy tank crumpled to the deck in a spray of energon. Before the Combaticon could react, Barricade was on him, energon daggers pressing against Brawl’s main energon line.

“Ex-vent just once,” Barricade hissed, not caring that the Combaticons were bearing down on him, only hindered by the crowd of unmoving Decepticons who were waiting to see if the tank would be killed. None intervened. The hate radiating off the small mech filled the passageway.

Brawl froze, not even daring to wipe away the energon streaming into his optics.

“Barricade, let him up,” Megatron said approaching. 

For a klik the ex-Enforcer thought about disobeying his leader and killing Brawl. With a snarl, Barricade stood, subspacing the energon daggers.

“Problem?” Megatron asked.

“He touched me,” Barricade answered with a shrug. Few would have been so bold. However Barricade wore his malevolence and indifference like armor.

“Onslaught, remove your gesaltmate form here and try and make him less stupid,” Megatron said and continued down the passageway.

“I’ll remember this, Onslaught warned as he picked up his battered gesaltmate.

“So will I,” Barricade said with glinting optics. He stalked away to his quarters. Entering he slid to the floor as the door closed.

He clenched his servos together to stop their shaking. Despite knowing Prowl was in Iacon, Barricade hadn’t been prepared for the depth of emotion that overwhelmed his at the sight of his younger brother.

No amount of time apart, distance or war could lessen his spark deep love for his brother. The hatred he’d seen in Prowl’s optics had torn him to his very spark. What did he expect? Of course Prowl hated him. How could he not, Barricade had failed Prowl so spectacularly. Even now, vorns after that accurse tact-net upgrade, Barricade remembered that cycle as if it had just happened.

_“NO! Cade, don’t let them take me. I don’t want to go. I don’t want to do this,” Prowl wailed, clinging to him like a space barnacle._

_“You can’t do this. He’s too young. He’s scared. STOP! You fragging afts. Don’t touch him!” Barricade screamed, clutching Prowl so tightly he felt his claws slice outer armor and pierced the soft protoform underneath. “You can’t have him.”_

_“Barricade, let go. Let go right now,” their sire barked, as servants tried to loosen the older mechling’s grip._

_“Prowl, you are causing a scene. You know this is for the best. You will be amazing when this is over. Don’t you know what a special chance this is?” their carrier pleaded._

_Desperate to protect Prowl, Barricade began kicking, and rolled so he could wrap his legs around Prowl, holding him more securely. With a savage ferocity, Barricade bit the servant’s servo, severing a digit completely off_

_The servant screamed in pain, energon spurting from the wound left by his missing digit. With all the spite a mechling could muster, Barricade spit the digit at their sire._

_“Let go! Let go! Let go! My Prowl’s scared. Let go!” Barricade yelled, snapping his sharp denta. The servants backed away._

_“ENOUGH!” their sire snapped, grabbing Barricade by his doorwing fairing. Pain lanced through him, loosening his grip enough for their carrier and servants used this advantage to wrest Prowl away. Energon dripping down the wounds made by Barricade’s claws._

_“Cade,” Prowl’s cry of despair fading as the mechling was carried away._

_“Take him to his room and lock him in there,” their sire snapped to the servants, as he held Barricade down contempt and anger filling the mech’s optics._

_“If you do this to him, I will never forgive you and I will hate you until you offline grey and cold,” Barricade said._

_“As though anything you think even matters.” The door slammed behind their sire._

_Barricade, snarled at the servants and stalked to his room. He heard the locks click into place. Phht, he ex-vented as if that could stop him.  
He went to the window and opened it. Climbing out, he clawed his way down the side of the house. Some of his claw tips breaking off in the rough exterior of their home. Energon from the wounds slickened his servos and he fell the last ten feet or so, slamming into the ground with a hard thud, knocking the air out his vents._

_Dazed he laid there until his gyros and vents stabilized. Once the world stopped spinning, Barricade got to his pedes and winced. Something in his left side felt broken. Warning after warning flashed across his HUD. No matter. He’d drag himself to the Medical Center with one digit if he had to to be there for his Prowl. _

_Bleeding and limping, Barricade began a slow hobbling walk. Much later he arrived at the Medical Center. His hip was throbbing but at least he’d stopped bleeding._

_“Oh Primus, what happened to you? Come on, I’ve got you,” a medic said hurrying to Barricade’s side with a hoverchair._

_“No, no I’m okay. I’ve got to get to my brother. Prowl had surgery. I have to be with him when he wakes up.” Barricade pulled away from the medic._

_“Was your brother in an accident too? Where are your creators?” the medic asked, corralling the mechling and scanning him._

_“We weren’t in an accident. I have to get to Prowl and our creators can rot in the Pit,” Barricade yelled, trying to pull free._

_“Mechling, what is going on?” the earnest-while medic asked, keeping Barricade from fleeing._

_Angry, in pain, hungry and frustrated Barricade confessed. “Our creators are having my younger brother upgraded with some stupid tact-net thing. He’s too young. He scared. I have to be there for him. I fell climbing out my window. Either help me or frag off.”_

_“Your hip strut is broken and will most likely need surgical repair,” the medic said looking at the preliminary scan. “You’ve ruptured several lines, but your self repair has sealed those off. At the least, you need energon and a pain patch._

_“I’ll get you those and see if I can find out about your brother,” the medic said, guiding the hoverchair in the Medical Center to an exam room. “Wait here.”_

_Barricade debated his options and decided to wait for the medic. He was in so much pain and so very hungry. He wouldn’t be any use to Prowl if he collapsed into stasis. It didn’t take long for the medic to return._

_“Drink this, it’s medical grade,” the medic said handing Barricade a cube while applying a pain patch to the mechling. “This will ease your pain. But you will need proper medical care.” _

_The medic leaned close and whispered. “Do not say anything about what your brother is here for. It’s long been rumored about experimental surgery and upgrades. Of course those never officially happen. There is one processor surgery scheduled for today. Officially it’s for a syntax repair. Floor twelve operatory five. The recovery rooms for processor surgeries are always three doors down from the surgery. In case of any emergencies.”_

_Barricade’s optics widened. “Thank you.” He slid from the table, but had to ask. “Why?”_

_“Working here doesn’t mean I approve of everything that happens. I’m a medic. I have to help. And given your devotion, your brother will need you more than anyone else when he onlines.”_

_Barricade nodded and slipped from the exam room. Few paid attention to him as he made his way to the twelfth floor. He rounded a corner and saw a small figure, covered by a sheet on a hoverbed being moved into what he assumed was a recovery room. Once the medic or whoever it was left the room, Barricade slipped down the hall and in._

_Prowl looked even smaller than usual. There was a large static bandage on his helm and he had more tubes, wires and machines hooked into him than Barricade could fathom. Sliding a chair next to the bed, Barricade took Prowl’s servo in his and waited._

_“Cade.” Barricade jerked online. He must have fallen into recharge. He blinked, Prowl was looking at him through heavy optics. “Appened? You’re urt,” he slurred._

_“Nothing to worry about, I’m fine. How are you feeling? Your helm hurt?” _

_“No. Can’t feel anyfing. Didn’t think you’d be ere.”_

_“Of course I’m here. Nothing will ever keep me from you.”___

_ _Barricade sighed and opened his optics as the memory file ended. Right, nothing would ever keep him from Prowl except his own catastrophic failures. _ _

_ _The upgrade had been a success. Their creators were so proud of themselves and if they noticed the shocking change in their youngest creation, they never spoke of it. Gone was fun, carefree, silly youngling. In his place was a serious, unemotional mechling who saw nothing but logic, percentage and outcome variances. _ _

_ _The Enforcers recruited Prowl right out of school. Barricade joined as well. He was determined to keep Prowl safe, to never let him be used again. He failed at that too. With his abilities on full display with the Enforcers, Prowl was placed in the tactical division, within in a vorn he was running it._ _

_ _Despite his running tactical every day more and more cold case files were being shunted to Prowl. Methodically he poured over every file and piece by piece put the puzzles together to solve them. Barricade volunteered for every case. He’d go into any gutter or back alley to ensure Prowl stayed safely away from them. Also, he was willing to do anything to lighten his brother’s workload. And if that meant swilling around gutters and slicing throats in back allies for information, at least Prowl’s servos were safe and clean._ _

_ _One off cycle Barricade went to Kaon on a lead. Instead of an informant, he found a rally being held by a gladiator. The gladiator was calling for an end the caste system. An end to the haves owning and controlling the have-nots. He wanted equality and an end to form deciding function. _ _

_ _That was the very ideology that had forced the upgrade on Prowl. An aptitude test said he’d be a perfect candidate. A stupid test had altered his Prowl’s life forever. Maybe this gladiator had a point._ _

_ _After his return to Praxus Barricade continued listen to and reading the writings of the gladiator. His processor made up, he was going to talk with Prowl and convince his brother to leave the Enforcers and go to Kaon. Together they would help the gladiator ensure no one was forcibly upgraded again and all Cybtronians were equal._ _

_ _But just as he couldn’t keep Prowl from being upgraded or used by the Praxian Enforcers as a walking super computer, Barricade was helpless to stop Prowl from being transferred to the Office of the Prime. Seems the preaching of the gladiator was starting to worry the powers-that-be in Iacon. The very mechs and femmes controlling the entire corrupt system. _ _

_ _Barricade pleaded with Prowl not to go but join him in Kaon. Prowl saw no logic in that. He had been assign to the Office of the Prime, he was going to and he wanted Barricade to go with him. Knots formed in Barricade’s tank as he thought of Prowl being used by the Prime as little more than a tool. It was all anyone saw Prowl as. A tactical genius to be used as necessary. _ _

_ _If he couldn’t convince Prowl to join him in Kaon, Barricade’s best option was to go to Kaon alone and help the gladiator free all Cybertronians, including Prowl. And so Barricade left Praxus and Prowl. He had to. He had to leave Prowl to save him. He had to leave Prowl because he loved him._ _

_ _The hate he saw in Prowl’s optics was a bitter energon pill but if he were honest with himself, Barricade had earned that hate. He had failed Prowl every single time, and joining Megatron had been the greatest failing of all. What had started off as a crusade for equality devolved into an insane mech’s deluded power grab. With any luck maybe they next time Barricade met one or both of those accursed frontline twins they would end him. _ _

_ _That actually might be the first good idea Barricade had in vorns. Yes, his processor was set. Next battle he’d go for the twins. They were sure to offline him, then his Prowl would be happy._ _


End file.
